Paleo Cafe Mackay

Great coffee and a lovely breakfast! I walked into the Grazing Goat this morning and was very pleasantly surprised. What a great cafe! I had the zucchini & pumpkin fritters for brekky which were delicious and so filling. The coffee was fabulous which is saying a lot as I am super fussy about my coffee. The service was fast and friendly. Thanks for a great experience, I will be back to try some of your other delicious breakfast choices.

You dream of such fabulous places for breakfast as a vegan. Sometimes when you travel outside of Brisbane and up North or West, you find it really hard to eat. It’s just sweet potato fries at every pub… which gets tiring. We did parkrun and stumbled across Grazing Goat for breakfast. Loved it so much! Great food, great service, a real find!

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the *new*. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations. The new needs friends. This morning, I experienced something new: an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core. In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook." But I realize, only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist; but a great artist *can* come from *anywhere*. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at the Grazing Goat, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in Mackay. I will be returning to the Grazing Goat soon, hungry for more.

It seems like this place is hit and miss. My mother went yesterday and kept on raving about how delicious the smashed avocado was, so we decided to visit together today. We went at 1:30pm near closing time and ordered the same thing but were gravely disappointed. My mum said the bread was completely different, the delicious sauce from yesterday was missing, and there was a lot less avocado and cucumber on top of the toast, even though it was still well presented and the service was friendly. The bread didn’t taste like sourdough as advertised. It tasted like it had been cut off a stale white baguette stick and over toasted. The avocado was thinly spread and lacked flavour. Perhaps they were busy/rushed and out of their usual ingredients - I would have preferred to have been told this upfront so I could go somewhere else for lunch, rather than be led into believing that everything was as per yesterday then being disappointed.

This place has been recommended to me by several people, walked past a few times and always seem the place full of customers. Tried it myself finally and totally agree with the recommendation. Delicious breakfast and good coffee. I ordered the zucchini fritters to opt for the healthier menu options and was happy with my choice, good presentation on the plate and tastes amazing. Highly recommended.

Went here for the first time and waited to be seated but no one served us. We had to find our own seat and go to counter to order. Very confusing if you’ve never been there before. Service was subpar, they seemed to be understaffed? not sure why it’s so busy. Enjoyed my time at the cafe next door much more. The big brekky was average, the sausages were nice. Great to see that they serve all day breakfast, perfect if you’re not a morning person.